And You Thought ISIS Was All Done

In what could be the start of a new phase of the war in Syria, ISIS militants have used suicide bombers to killed nearly 100 people and wound nearly 200 more in the city of Sweida. Haaretz writes:

Islamic State militants killed scores of people in a series of attacks on government-held parts of southwestern Syria on Wednesday, including multiple suicide blasts in Sweida city, official sources said.

The seemingly coordinated attacks were the deadliest to hit government territory in many months. At least 96 people were killed and 176 wounded in total, the head of the Sweida health authority told the pro-Damascus Sham FM radio.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group, said at least 156 people were killed. Islamic State said in a statement that it had carried out the attacks, and that it had killed more than 100 people.

Northeast of Sweida, a Druze-majority city, the jihadists launched simultaneous attacks on several villages where they clashed with government forces, state media and the Observatory said.

In the city itself, at least two attackers blew themselves up, one near a marketplace and the second in another district, state television said. State news agency SANA said two other IS militants were killed before they could detonate their bombs.

Despite ISIS’s military setbacks, the terrorist organization remains a threat to civilians around the world. Read more here.